How much Land?

[carsona246]

I've been trying to find out exactly what kind of newt works best for me, and I'm pretty sure I've settled on firebellied newts, because they seem pretty hardy, are mostly aquatic, and are pretty small. At the moment I have a ten gallon all set up for them, but before I start considering getting a newt I want to make sure I undesertand how much land do they need. I keep reading about terrestraily kept firebellies, and then I read about aquatic setups. I would prefer a fully aquatic setup filled up half the tank, with driftwood coming out of the water to let the newts get out of the water. Will this work, or will I need to do half land half water? I'm getting a twenty when I come home for thanksgiving, so maybe I could possibly do half and half, but I would prefer to avoid it just because I'm so used to fish tanks. Also, I know everyone asks this question but my apartment is usually around 74 degrees. A cup of water left out was at 72 degrees, I have a canister filter I plan on using to cascade water down the back of the tank. Will this cool the water enough?
Thanks for any help

 

[trisha84]

I think that your setup will work just fine for a few firebellies. I have had mine for about 5 yrs now and haven't changed the setup much. Just to add a few more plants and decorative rocks. I bought a really neat "island" for him that sits in the corner of a tank and is held there by magnets. He is up on that fairly often. I bought it from PetSmart. I do know that they like fairly cool water but am unsure of the temperature that it needs to be at. Hope that helps you out some.

Trisha

 

[Azhael]

The cases of terrestrial newts you´ve heard of are because the animals are so stressed and the water conditions are often so bad in the shops that they go terrestrial. This is very common with newly imported Hypselotriton (Cynops) orientalis.
10 gallons of water are the minimum recomendable volume for even a single newt, so as you can imagine a half filled 10gallon tank is not enough.
I would like to recommend that you consider purchasing captive bred animals from a breeder instead of buying wild-caught ones from a shop. This is because you would be buying an stressed animal, possibly ill and likely to go terrestrial or starve. Also, mass collection is certainly not good for the species.
There are a number of species that are commonly captive bred and would suit your requirements (of the top of my head, C.pyrrhogaster, C.ensicauda, I.alpestris, H.cyanurus, and if you wouldn´t mind larger species, any Triturus or Pleurodeles waltl).

Many species like H.orientalis are almost a 100% aquatic in captivity so no land is required (best to dedicate that space to more water), except perhaps a piece of floating cork bark for the unlikely event of them wanting to hang out of the water for a while.
As for the temperature, generally speaking the ideal is between 15-20ºC. Your temps are not too bad for some species, but ideally you should try and get them to be below 20ºC.

 

[carsona246]

thanks for all the help, I've already found another member on here who might possibly have some firebellies, so no store bought newts for me.